BonMag

I had the SAME thing, and still do on occasion. After my surgery it was SO bad that I was preparing myself mentally to have the band removed. One morning I woke-up in tears because it hurt so bad it felt like I couldn't breathe. My husband is a chiropractor and luckily knew how to "adjust" my stomach.

He had me lay on my back and while breathing all of my air out, I press down on my stomach (right below left side rib cage). You breathe all the way out, press your stomach down (towards your feet, not towards your butt!) and towards your midline. Hold it down and take a few deep breaths. I still have to "adjust" my stomach on occasion.

I hope this helps!

Hang in there.

On the "lap-band chart of restriction", there are three zones; yellow, green, and red.

One of the indications that you are in the "red zone", or over-filled, is poor weight loss.

So, here's my question: why is there poor weight loss or even gains in the red zone? I am pretty sure I am over-filled at the moment because I basically can't eat. I have been this way for the past three days and I have actually GAINED two pounds.

WHY!?!?!? This doesn't make sense to me AT ALL. It made sense to me to think that if someone is over-filled, they may stretch out their upper pouch while eating resulting in ultimately consuming more. BUT, if I am eating so little- and obviously NOT stretching out my pouch- why on earth am I not losing? :tt1:

Weird. Just weird.

I plan to go in to my doc's on Monday if my restriction hasn't loosened up some.

Thanks for your help!

Thanks ladies! It's so nice to know that I am not the only one who has turned into a virtual freezer!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

Here's to some warmth. Here, here! :thumbup:

Pain is gone...now just contending with the 3 week liquid diet. Everything going down makes me nervous lol.

I'm on full fluids now and I wonder if a tiny piece of onion or something is going to unfurl me.

Does anyone know...for the full Fluid phase, if Soup has "bits" in it, is that going to mess my band up?

I was told by my surgeon's office that they say two weeks of liquids because they know realistically if they say two weeks, people will give it two days! And if they say two days, people will give it two hours. So- you'll be just fine if there are little tiny bits of food in your soup. As long as the food is passing through quickly without any pain or sensations of getting stuck, you're just fine with that.

Congratulations!

I have read other bandsters say that when they start to feel like they can eat too much, and fear that their pouch has stretched, they do liquids only for two or three days. That way your pouch will have the chance to retract some.

Try that and see if it helps at all. If it helps a little- give liquids a few more days. I know it won't be easy, but it beats putting all the weight back on.

GOOD LUCK!!!:rolleyes2:

Laura,

I have had a similar pain twice before and I disagree with the others. I do NOT thing it is gas. This is almost a "pulled muscle" sensation and like you, I was concerned about a hiatal hernia repair problem. I don't feel it is a gas pain issue and in both cases when I felt the pain, it was prior to eating. I wondered if it could be a response from a muslcle strain from the hernia repair. My pain is deep in the upper right quadrant of my rib cage, close enough to the heart to THINK it may be related, but it isn't.

I have a call in to my physician. I didn't call after the first episode, but called an RN friend. After the episode yesterday I have called. Good luck with your pain.

Hey guys. I had a horrible pain near my heart and as it turned it it was the band rubbing on my diaphragm. It was so terribly painful!

I had a hernia repaired at the same time the band was placed and this resulted in extra swelling. So, when my stomach swelled, it pushed the band into the path of my diaphragm. It wouldn't hurt all the time, just most of the time and it started to feel like my innards were turning into raw meat!

So, now when it starts to happen, I take some ibuprofen and my husband, who is a doctor, actually "adjusts" my stomach to move the band away from my diaphragm.

I am thinking about having my husband, who is a doctor, learn how do perform the adjustments. But, I want to make sure I am using the right needle.

Do you know? :rolleyes2:

I just had this experience. Plus a cold. My surgeon says 2 days of liquids and 2 days of mushies then solid. However by day 2 i knew I couldn't go to mushies yet. I was getting foaming and oversalivating (prolonged). The foaming was thin and not large in volume like tbspns. In general its not an emergency if you are able to drink liquids and keep them down if you can't you need an UNFILL so you don't dehydrate. I stayed on THIN liquids for 3 full days then went to mushies. The whole time I was having this foaming issue. Was on the phone with NYU; they felt it was due to the cold and if I can ride it out on mushies till the cold went away (I was really against getting an unfill because we went aggressive this month for a reason).

Anyway a few tips:

Advil (liquid/childrens helps get swelling down); so do hot fluids.

Listen to your body you really should be only liquids and then mushies. If you really don't want an unfil stay on those things longer (call your doctor).

For me I've been better and better everyday. Today I had dark meat chicken and no problems (aside from the post nasal drip foaming).

I also have a cold and have wondered if all this extra...well, yucky stuff going down has contributed to feeling too tight. I have A LOT of yucky stuff.

Thanks so much guys for sharing your experiences! I am going to do liquids today and tomorrow and mushies on Sunday and see how I feel on Monday before calling my doctor.

You guys rock!!!!! Thanks for making me feel better. :rolleyes2:

Have any of you suffered from bad chills since your surgery? I started having severe chills at night about two months ago. I have chills that run down my arms and legs and literally give me goose bumps. My hands and feet are freezing and even with an electric blanket, a feather down comforter, another blanket and another comforter.... it takes me about two hours to fall asleep because I am SO cold at night.

I asked my surgeon about this two days ago and he said that he has heard of this before. He said that your body has to adjust to the weight loss and reestablish an equilibrium. He said it is like being comfortable under a 30 pound blanket and then all of a sudden throwing it off- you'll freeze.

In addition to being cold, he also said that some people experience dizziness due to actual fat loss around the inner ear which throws off your balance until your body adjusts to the fat loss. Pretty interesting stuff, eh?

I would love to know that I am not the only one who has gone from hot and sweaty all the time to skin of ice!

I have some experience with the WoW forum, and how addicting it can be. My husband used the WoW game to escape from reality when he was going through a depression.

He actually found that giving up the game made him feel much better. He would make comments like, "Wow, look trees. Sunshine. There's a world out here."

Maybe you need to step away from the computer and try to face your depression with some healthy eating and exercise. Eating right and exercising will make you feel better, and maybe you won't feel a need to "escape" anymore.

You can do it!!!!!!

I went in two days ago to get a small fill because I wasn't feeling much restriction.

My surgeon doesn't want to fill me too fast, so he suggested adding .5-1 cc at a time. I now have a total of around 5 ccs.

After my fill I was able to drink fine and even had a slice of deli chicken that went down slowly, but fine.

However, I haven't been able to eat (or barely drink) anything since then. I realize I am probably having a swelling response. I am afraid to go and get an un-fill only to have no restriction again. Ugh. I just don't know what to do!

How long should I wait to see if the swelling goes down? Any personal experiences are greatly appreciated. THANKS SO MUCH!!!

I have lost & gained.

I have lost my fear of being morbidly obese for the rest of my life.

and

I have gained hope. Hope that one day there will be a healthier, slimmer me.

I was banded one month ago today, and I can understand your frustration.

BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, I know several people who have had the bypass. There are several reasons that I chose NOT to have the bypass based on their personal experiences.

From what I have seen, besides the fact that with a bypass your poor organs are all mutilated and re-arranged, starvation is the mode of weight loss. Starvation is NOT healthy for you...at all. ALL of the individuals I know with the bypass have ALL had to have their gallbladders out, have constant food getting stuck issues, their hair is thinning and receding, they have severe acid reflux and ulcer issues, they have diarrhea all the time...and honestly, they all look really unhealthy.

I know three people who are several years out from their bypasses, and their stomachs have stretched out and the weight has gone right back on. At least with the band, we can increase our restriction to help with our control, with them, if they stretch their stomachs out, they're screwed!:tongue2:

Hang in there, remember how many people have been really successful with the lap band. Maybe you can talk to your doctor about taking something for your depression? If you felt better about things, it might be easier not to be so hard on yourself.

WE CAN DO THIS!!!

Momma,

I was banded on the 28th of August and I have moments of feeling the same way. I don't have time to write much right now, but I will write more later. Please know that you are not alone.

Hi HMARKO,

I don't see why you can't go to your chiropractor. Just make sure that you are comfortable the whole time- if something feels sore, or uncomfortable, don't do it! :thumbdown:

Being adjusted during this time of healing is a good idea, just take good care of yourself.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for all of your support. I feel so sorry for the bandsters that don't know this forum exists! I don't know what I would do without it.

WHOO-HOO!!!! Congratulations!!!! :tongue2::thumbup::):thumbup::w00t:

I am so scared that I am going to be a band failure. Obviously, I have failed at weight loss every other time I have tried, so I am so nervous that I am going to fail once again. :bored:

I have my first fill this Thursday. Does it get easier? I am hungry most of the time, and I keep feeling like my old habits keep creeping back in. This past month has been pretty good, but the past few days have been just awful- I've put on a few pounds and I am just so darn upset at myself.

I need to hear some stories about "bandster he!!' and how you may have overcome it after your first fill.

Thanks for sharing your stories with me!

Hey Renee,

It is common for your stomach to swell some after fills. A few days after my surgery I developed a pain when I would move funny or breathe. It was so annoying. It eventually felt like I was being rubbed raw on the inside.

I called my surgeon and he said that I was probably so swollen that the band was rubbing on my diaphragm when I moved or breathed. He advised me to take 800 mg of Ibuprofen every 6-8 hours to help with the inflammation.

The feeling eventually went away once the swelling went down. So, my guess is that you too are feeling the rubbing on your diaphragm. Besides the Ibuprofen, it helped me to push down and in right under my left rib-cage which essentially moved my stomach away from my diaphragm.

Good luck! It should go away soon. :bored:

Here is my blog:

The Blubber Blog

I wish you the best of luck with your journey! I am going to go visit your blog now.

THANKS!

~Lynn

Hey Kimo-

Hang in there. I was/am in the same boat! I had my surgery August 28th and I too had a tremendously hard time following the liquid diet.< /p>

I reached out to a few of my bandster friends, who all confirmed to me that they also cheated at times.

Don't be so hard on yourself, this is going to be a slow process. It is not going to happen overnight. Just because there is a piece of silicon wrapped around our stomachs, doesn't mean that we are all of a sudden going to hate food! food and eating are a matter of life and that won't ever go away.

We are always going to be tempted, but I can tell you that it gets easier. MUCH, much easier. I am already having no problems thinking smaller. When I go out to eat, or when I prepare meals at home, I don't even think about the larger portions because I know I CAN'T eat that much.

Once you have a fill, you will not be able to binge, so that urge will slowly disappear with time. It's like a muscle, the more you resist temptations, the easier it will get.

Again, hang in there. From what I have heard this is ALL perfectly normal. Just try to concentrate on the reasons why you decided to undergo this surgery in the first place. Make small changes and be super patient with yourself.

We all mess up.

Good luck to you!!!

If the purpose of the band is to get foods to "sit" in the upper pouch for as long as possible, then why do I feel the food going through immediately?

I mean, if I don't chew things well enough, I know it because it gets stuck. But, why do I feel it right away? Shouldn't it take a while for it to start to move through?

The obvious answer might be that I don't have enough restriction yet because I haven't had a fill, but if I don't chew extremely well, food gets stuck. So, I am sure I already have a bit of restriction.

Oh, gees. I sound like I am talking in circles. I'll stop typing now. :mad2:

3 nights!? That's crazy!!! I left the hospital two hours after my surgery. As soon as I was awake, walking around and drinking Water, they sent me home.

Maybe you should look into another hospital? I know that all the hospitals in my area preform the lap-band surgery same day/outpatient.

Good luck! Let us all know how it goes.

The Blubber Blog

Nice to "meet" all of you. My name is Lynn and I live in NC. I was banded on the 28th of August at 290 lbs.

I am happily married and have two young children that keep me super busy- but not too busy to eat apparently- hence the band!

I am greatly anticipating a whole new lifestyle and a whole new me!

Good luck to ALL of you!!!

(Down 15 pounds so far.)

The Blubber Blog

Hey, I'm with you about the massages. I actually went to one three days after surgery. I just laid on my back and she did some body work.

However, my stomach feels just fine to lay on and I am only two weeks post-op now. I have to say that I laid flat on my belly for my husband to adjust me probably only a week after surgery.

Just remember, you don't want the masseuse to use too much force/pressure because your body is healing and you don't want to release a bunch of built-up toxins during that time.

Good luck!